I have been learning about and enjoying Ubuntu on my Toshiba Satellite, with considerable help from the good folks here at GT. My wife has watched my progress, and she has asked me to install Ubuntu on her Dell Inspiron 1501. I installed it from the CD and set it up to dual-boot, as she wants to try before she commits.

No trouble - install went without a hitch, until near the end. Then I received a message about being offline. I tried to connect via wireless connection (do not have a wired option at home) and received message indicating there were no drivers present. I did some googling and researching, and what I understand is that there is a known bug with Broadcom hardware in Dell machines. I found all kinds of text that I could add into a terminal, but I don't even know what a terminal is! I'm an old DOS guy, so I am figuring terminal simply a command prompt. Still, I would like some help before I go any further!

I have been learning about and enjoying Ubuntu on my Toshiba Satellite, with considerable help from the good folks here at GT. My wife has watched my progress, and she has asked me to install Ubuntu on her Dell Inspiron 1501. I installed it from the CD and set it up to dual-boot, as she wants to try before she commits.

No trouble - install went without a hitch, until near the end. Then I received a message about being offline. I tried to connect via wireless connection (do not have a wired option at home) and received message indicating there were no drivers present. I did some googling and researching, and what I understand is that there is a known bug with Broadcom hardware in Dell machines. I found all kinds of text that I could add into a terminal, but I don't even know what a terminal is! I'm an old DOS guy, so I am figuring terminal simply a command prompt. Still, I would like some help before I go any further!

Please help! What's the fix here?

Thanks!

Jim

First, I'm assuming this is an internal wireless device(if it's USB, it's a bit different).
Open up a terminal
type this "lspci" (no quotes, that's a lowercase L).. and hit enter.

That should spit out some info about devices that are on the PCI bus (of which your internal wireless device is one)... Go through the list, and find your wireless device... Since it's a Dell, it's almost 100% a Broadcom... The line will look something like this...

This may look kinda long, but I tried to make sure this was fairly detailed as I know your linux experience is... limited

OK, first... you're going to need:

1. Your Installation CD

2. A machine with a working internet connection (which you obviously have now)

3. Something to transfer a file to your Ubuntu machine, from the machine that has Internet access (thumb drive, burn another CD, we'll assume a thumb drive).

First...

Make sure Ubuntu is booted and you're logged in.
Insert the installation CD
On the left (where all the program icons are), you should see the "CD" pop up.
Right click the CD and choose Open
You should get a window showing various folders that are on the CD (boot, casper, dists, pool, etc..)
Navigate to /pool/main/b/b43-fwcutter
Inside the b43-fwcutter folder, is a file called b43-fwcutter_xxx.deb Double click that .deb file and Ubuntu Software center should open up.. Just click install, and let it install.

First, put the .tar.bz2 file, INSIDE YOUR HOME DIRECTORY. Don't put it in the Downloads folder, or Documents folder... just drop it in your home directory.

Open up a terminal
Open up that .txt file.

Copy/paste the first line into the terminal and hit enter. When it finishes, copy/paste the 2nd line into the terminal, and hit enter. You'll be prompted to enter your username password. Type your password and hit enter (note, you won't see any *** or --- so just type your password and hit enter)

Let that finish.

When it's done, click the "Dash Home" button, and do a search for "Additional Drivers".. and Open the Additional Drivers utility.

You should see an option there that says "b43". Highlight it and click Activate (you'll probably get a message you need to restart)

Restart your machine.

When you log in, give it a second, then you should be able to click the Networking applet, and you should your wireless network. Simply enter your credentials and connect.

IGF

__________________

Quote:

Ronald Reagan
"If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under."
"Man is not free unless Government is limited"

I gave up! I did the drag and drop into the terminal screen, then hit enter. The next screen was the same install screen I'd already been to; and the button was still not an option.

I will connect to my network via ethernet on Wednesday. Once I do that, what do I need to do?

Thank you,

Jim

Hmm, that doesn't make a lot of sense.. dpkg is a command line utility, and shouldn't open up the software center. I'm still confused why you can't install it from the cd... not sure whats going on there.

We've never had a Windows machine that didn't have to go back once a year or so under the service plan to be tinkered with. I don't get to the bottom of the issue since it gets done by the Geek Squad, but when it comes to issues, Windows has plenty of them, and you have to buy Windows.

__________________
Drugs are bad because if you do drugs you're a hippie and hippies suck.
Eric Cartman

I have a windows machine I've been trying for three years to get all of the graphics card functions to work properly on. These type of problems are not unique to Linux. There are just more windows gurus to help with windows problems.

'All in wonder' card with cable input and writing capabilities. Worked fine in Windows 2000. Used it as a home made DVR. Had to upgrade to WINXP. Now the card will only display the screen and NO functionality. There are many instances where windows will not work properly with technology.

You'll have to reinstall. There's other ways to do it, but honestly, it's way way easier to just reinstall.

Let me make this suggestion. Don't nuke Windows just yet. I've seen this trend before.. someone tries Ubuntu, they love it, they nuke Windows 2 days later. About a week later, they find something they can't figure out an answer to, and they immediately reinstall Windows (if they're lucky enough to still have the disks)...

You're both still learning this OS... My suggestion... Dual boot for 3-4mo at least. By then, any quirks, problems, etc.. you may have you will have run into and hopefully figured out. If something comes up that is insurmountable, you have Windows to fall back on..

That's what I would suggest. Give it a while till the shiny new feeling wears off and if you still want to do it then you can.

Installing again and using the whole disk is probably best. You could try something like gparted to remove the windows partitions and realize your Linux one to take the whole drive.

You'll need to update your grub to remove the option to boot windows as well.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

__________________
I won't be wronged. I won't be insulted. I won't be laid a-hand on. I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same from them. - John Bernard Books(John Wayne in The Shootist)

You could try something like gparted to remove the windows partitions and realize your Linux one to take the whole drive.

This was really my point... You could boot a live CD/USB, use Gparted to format the windows partition, then use gparted to expand your Linux partition to take that whole drive..

Lets say for the sake of argument, the hard drive is 80-120gigs, and the current Windows partition, is probably around 40-60gigs... It would take a LONG time to resize and reallocate 40-60gigs(I'm thinking several hours). If you have your data backed up, Boot the Install cd/usb, and you can do a "complete" install (where it takes over the whole drive) in about 15min.

__________________

Quote:

Ronald Reagan
"If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under."
"Man is not free unless Government is limited"

This was really my point... You could boot a live CD/USB, use Gparted to format the windows partition, then use gparted to expand your Linux partition to take that whole drive..

Lets say for the sake of argument, the hard drive is 80-120gigs, and the current Windows partition, is probably around 40-60gigs... It would take a LONG time to resize and reallocate 40-60gigs(I'm thinking several hours). If you have your data backed up, Boot the Install cd/usb, and you can do a "complete" install (where it takes over the whole drive) in about 15min.

I agree that reinstalling would be the best bet. Just giving some options.

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk 2

__________________
I won't be wronged. I won't be insulted. I won't be laid a-hand on. I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same from them. - John Bernard Books(John Wayne in The Shootist)

Both of the computers that I have put Ubuntu on were literally in a drawer, awaiting a trip to the shooting range to be "disposed of." They stopped working well with Windows for whatever reason, and we moved on and bought new machines. Ubuntu has brought two machines that I thought were trash back to life.

We have an HP netbook that runs like a raped ape - it has all the Windows and Office software we use and might need in the future.

So, I'm installing Ubuntu on her machine as I type this message. I will go back and fix the wireless issue (thanks IGF), and then I will go get her preferred browser (Chrome).

I did the install, no trouble. Once it was completed, I plugged into my network and typed in the "sudo" commands given here on GT to get my broadcomm hardware to work wirelessly. Typed the commands in, computer did all the same stuff as before, then I restarted my machine. I anticipated that the computer would auto-detect the network, as it did before. This time: nothing. I've gone in and manually configured the settings for my network (name, password), but I cannot get it to see the wireless network.

I did the install, no trouble. Once it was completed, I plugged into my network and typed in the "sudo" commands given here on GT to get my broadcomm hardware to work wirelessly. Typed the commands in, computer did all the same stuff as before, then I restarted my machine. I anticipated that the computer would auto-detect the network, as it did before. This time: nothing. I've gone in and manually configured the settings for my network (name, password), but I cannot get it to see the wireless network.

HELP!

Jim

Did you activate the driver?

__________________

Quote:

Ronald Reagan
"If we ever forget that we are One Nation Under God, then we will be a nation gone under."
"Man is not free unless Government is limited"